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PALS Certified

So I’m on ER orientation for 6 weeks and for those 6 weeks there are all sorts of classes I need to take. So for the month of August I’m only actually working with my preceptor about 7 times. (obviously I’ve negotiated to extend my orientation period)

Last week I got certified in PALS which is pediatric advanced life support. I was really nervous before I went A. because I heard it was hard but also because B. our educator sent out this terrifying letter (which she swears was a form letter from the heart association) with a whole pre-course checklist that we had to complete. You had to know this -or you might fail- you had to know that because they weren’t going to teach it -or you might fail- and so forth.

Plus I was pretty sure that my score on the pretest (a 68%… and I took it twice) indicated I shouldn’t be working with children regardless.

Overall the class wasn’t as bad as I thought, I really felt like I learned a lot. I passed the case study portion where you’re the team leader and direct the team during a code. I was also really proud that I did so well on the written portion getting about the same scores as some of the vastly more experienced nurses. Considering I still haven’t had basic arrhythmia training (that’s next week) or ACLS (advanced cardiac life support, that’s next month) I thought that was pretty impressive because some of the information from those was in this course. For instance, all the cardiac drugs you really only ever give in a code situation… no experience there.

So I am now PALS certified and I do feel much more prepared to handle an emergency involving a child who may happen to wander in off the street, which is really rather empowering!

(Although in all seriousness people, a world renowned children’s hospital is 5 blocks away, please take your sick kid there)

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2 thoughts on “PALS Certified”

There is NOTHING more vidicating than having the cop pull somebody over who was bugging you earlier. HA HA, take THAT! Probably got the guy on a registration or something. 😀

I LOVE Super Nanny. But I’ve only watched it TWICE. I’m now inspired to see if there are any full episodes online…

On child emergency care. You’re right–take the kid to the children’s hospital! I took Scooter (I’m trying to remember why–probably an ear infection) to an instacare office and the doctor said he was too nervous (seriously) to take care of kids. I had to drive to the children’s clinic, but you know what? These people were PROS. Even if you don’t think you could do it, if you did it every single day, you too could be an expert. 😉

I swear to you there seems to be nothing that freaks the nurses in our ER out quite like a seriously ill child.

We’re one of those famous-for-birthing-hospitals that has “woman” in the name and there seems to be a small % of women that think “well that’s where I had the baby, obviously that’s where I should take the child.” ahem: “CHILDREN’S”

I’ve only ever seen one seriously ill child in our ER, well ok, a handful, but only one that was blue… I hope to never again witness that.